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Late Medieval/Renaissance Europe?

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Eigon
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Late Medieval/Renaissance Europe?

Post by Eigon » Sun October 3rd, 2010, 7:14 pm

I'm looking for recommendations. I've just finished the Lymond saga by Dorothy Dunnett (well, apart from tracking down the volume about Russia - at which point I'll be forced to read it all again!). I've also read about half of the Niccolo saga (again, tracking down the ones in between at the moment).
So, is there anything else out there that focuses on Europe rather than England? I'm bored with English history and I want to see what the rest of the world was up to.
"There were no full time Vikings back then. Everybody had another job."
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Ash
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Post by Ash » Sun October 3rd, 2010, 9:12 pm

Vainglory is wonderful, takes place in France but covers other countries as well.

Four Queens is an wonderful non fiction look at four sisters, each who became queen of different European country: France, England, Holy Roman Empire and Sicily. Wonderfully written, will take you around the continent with history.

The Secret Life of Grazia dei Rossi is about a Jewish woman who becomes partners with her father in business, in Florence during the Ren.

Our own CW Gortner wrote The Last Queen, about Juana of Spain that I've just started reading; its gotten some sterling reviews.

Hope that helps!

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Sun October 3rd, 2010, 10:09 pm

There's a lot, really - it's just that it tends to get swamped by the vast number of novels set in late medieval/Tudor England.

Check out the "Continent" section of the Medieval 14th-15th Centuries page and the Renaissance page at HistoricalNovels.info.

For starters: David Blixt's Master of Verona is set in 14th century Italy. Tracy Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn is set in France. Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle is a really good dual-time novel set in the present and in late medieval Germany. Cathedral of the Sea by the Spanish novelist Ildefonso Falcones got a fair amount of buzz and is set in Spain. Cecelia Holland's Rakossy is set in Hungary and The Lords of Vaumartin in France. Ash suggested Vainglory - there's a review of this by our own Annis at HistoricalNovels.info that can be reached through the 14th-15th century page.
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Post by Lucy Pick » Mon October 4th, 2010, 12:44 am

How about Helle Haase's The Scarlet City, about Rome and a young man trying to figure out his parentage.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Mon October 4th, 2010, 1:06 am

[quote=""Ash""]Vainglory is wonderful, takes place in France but covers other countries as well.

Four Queens is an wonderful non fiction look at four sisters, each who became queen of different European country: France, England, Holy Roman Empire and Sicily. Wonderfully written, will take you around the continent with history.

The Secret Life of Grazia dei Rossi is about a Jewish woman who becomes partners with her father in business, in Florence during the Ren.

Our own CW Gortner wrote The Last Queen, about Juana of Spain that I've just started reading; its gotten some sterling reviews.

Hope that helps![/quote]

I agree, Vainglory was very good, and very different from the norm.

The book is buried, but IIRC Reay Tannahills The World the Flesh and the Devil is centered more in Europe?
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Post by annis » Mon October 4th, 2010, 5:29 am

David Blixt's Master of Verona was one i really enjoyed- set in Italy at the cusp of the Renaissance.

SGM
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Post by SGM » Mon October 4th, 2010, 8:56 am

There are the two novels by Monaldi and Sorti set in a rather later period (around 1700) - Imprimatur and Secretum.

I haven't read them yet as I am still reading the Lymond Saga (with a few other novels in between) but have left these two until I have finished the DD series.
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Eigon
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Post by Eigon » Mon October 4th, 2010, 7:32 pm

Wow! This is fantastic! And just what I was looking for. Thank you all.

The only ones on the Medieval and Renaissance lists that I have read (apart from Dorothy Dunnett) are The Name of the Rose and The Colour of Heaven, so I've got a lot to look forward to!

The Four Queens was actually on my list of books to get round to - this will give me the push to go off and buy it.
"There were no full time Vikings back then. Everybody had another job."
Neil Gaiman, from Odd and the Frost Giants.

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Post by Madeleine » Tue October 5th, 2010, 11:03 am

I think Sarah Dunant has written a few novels set in Renaissance Europe, specifically Italy:

Sacred Hearts
The Birth of Venus
In the Company of the Courtesan

I think these are set in that period, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
Currently reading "The Whitstable Pearl Mystery" by Julie Wassmer

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